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Cannot boot 2400
I have a dell 2400 that somebody gave me. It had no hard drive so I put a newly formatted one in. When I turn it on I get a single beep and, a bit later, two beeps. (sometimes just the two beeps). I have three green lights and 1 amber light. I have put in 4 different memory sticks but can do more. I am hoping this is a memory problem and not a motherboard problem. When turned on, with no memory, I get what sounds like three groups of two long beeps each. The double beeps I get with memory in is not so long and not the same pitch and much quicker. I have tried both pc2700 (pc333) as well as pc2100 - to no avail.
Perhaps I have a bad motherboard or cpu. I cannot tell as I cannot get this machine to the point where I can do anything more than deal with lights and beeps. I suspect I am screwed but would appreciate anybody's thoughts.
Thank you.........
There is no operating system on it (xp doesn't allow moving drives from one machine to another). As far as I can tell this never even makes it to the point of reading the drive, or the cd. The screen never shows anything but black so I cannot even get to the bios.
Actually XP does allow moving drives from one machine to another, although depending on how many hardware differences there are you may be forced to reactivate the OS. Are you certain the hard drive you put in the 2400 is actually functional? Try disconnecting it from the motherboard then turn the system back on and see if you get the same beep code & diagnostic LED pattern.
It was exactly the same. I formatted this drive on this machine and had no problems when I took a look at it. The beeps, without the memory are, I think, 4 long and then 2 more long (a,b,c, are orange. w/memory in abc are green). Because of the two quick beeps I continue to wonder about the memory but I have tried 4 different sticks (but can borrow some more and try those if necessary)
Thanks for the response.
The_Namek
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Posted October 23rd, 2009 14:00
jwhitt12,
You said the hard drive you put in the system is formatted but is there an operating system installed on it?